


Home is where your people are

by keysburg



Series: Josie's Bar [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, foggy and claire should hang out, foggy is so much fun to write, i can't tell if this is funny, matt murdock thinks too much, they drank the eel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 07:37:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4213428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keysburg/pseuds/keysburg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It can be weird when your friends start hanging out with each other.  Which means Matt isn’t sure what to think when he finds Foggy and Claire together at Josie’s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is where your people are

The word is out. Crime in Hell’s Kitchen is down something like 80%, with all the small-time criminals moving on to greener pastures. It’s only a matter of time before someone fills the void, but Matt will take what he can get. For now, that means instead of hanging out on a rooftop, he’s going to swing by Josie’s and see if Foggy is there. The short walk there is uneventful: he smells mostly dinners cooking and hears televisions, laughing, squabbling. The city is settling in for its typical weeknight.

When he arrives, he steps through the door and then immediately takes two steps to the right. Moving along the wall, he’s out of the way while he scans the room. Josie’s smell is familiar: ethanol, the smell of many men, some who are not so great with their hygiene. Under that is varnish wearing off from the bar, citrus fruit, and smoke that has sunk into the building, despite the fact that the smoking ban has been in place over a decade. Over the TVs, conversation, and the crack of the pool balls, he can hear Foggy, but not from his usual place at the bar. He’s at a table towards the back, and he’s telling someone a story… that is rewarded with a throaty but feminine laugh. The laugh is very different from Karen’s girlish giggle or Marci’s cackle. Is Foggy here… on a date? Matt turns to slip back out the door.

“Speak of the devil!” Foggy has spotted him, voice booming, and Matt can’t help but cringe just a little. Even though there’s no way anyone in Josie’s would see it as more than a figure of speech. “Hey buddy, you just got here, no reason to leave yet!” Foggy has made his way over to him and takes Matt’s hand and places it on his elbow. Matt registers just a slight boost to the ethanol smell in the room. It could be from the air currents as Foggy moved toward him or it could be he’s on his third drink, and it’s beginning to seep from his pores.

“I don’t want to interrupt anything…” Matt says this but is following Foggy’s lead back to the table. They’re not halfway back when he smells jasmine warring with hospital disinfectant. Claire? Foggy is drinking at Josie’s… with Claire?

“You are not interrupting! Well, you are interrupting. Because we were talking about you. And now we can’t do that, because you’re here, and it would be rude. But that’s okay, we’d rather have the pleasure of your company. Right, Claire?” They’ve arrived at a table against the back wall. 

“I don’t know, I was enjoying the law school adventures of Matt and Foggy.” Claire’s voice is relaxed, teasing, and off to his right. Matt wonders which adventures Foggy has been sharing, and how exactly he ended up telling them to her in the first place. In Josie’s bar.

“Well, now that I’m here, I can tell you the real version, and not whatever tall tales I’m sure Foggy has been cooking up.” Matt feels his way into the stool opposite the wall, next to Claire, and smiles to hide his discomfort. He is rewarded with just the slightest hitch in Claire’s breath, which only makes him smile more broadly.

“I swear on the graves of my Irish ancestors, every word I’ve spoken tonight is the truth, Murdock. Let me get you a glass.” There’s a stir of air currents as Foggy moves away, and Matt turns his face toward Claire, raising his eyebrows.

“Don’t give me that look, Matt.” Claire’s voice is still relaxed, amused. There’s a little ethanol coming underneath the jasmine and disinfectant, she’s had at least two drinks. He doesn’t smell any mint or lime coming from the glass in front of her.

“What look, Claire? I’m wearing sunglasses.” Matt can’t help but smirk, and hears a little puff of breath he guesses is accompanied by an eyeroll.

“Alright, here we go!” Foggy is back with a glass and settles into the chair on his left. Matt lifts the bottle of eel from the middle of the table, swirling it a little to gauge how full it is. “I’ll pour, Matty.” Foggy says, taking the bottle from him.

“He’s just trying to tell how drunk we are, Foggy. We didn’t start with a full bottle… Matty. You won’t be able to tell that way.” Claire is very amused now. Both her and Foggy’s heartbeats are a little fast, but it sounds like the booze, not excitement or embarrassment.

“I can’t believe you’re drinking that crap. I thought you were a mojito woman.” Matt says. I thought you preferred the jazz bar, he thinks.

“Well, it’s good to try new things. And it has its perks. Mostly that Foggy pays for it. And after two drinks you really can’t taste it anymore.” Foggy has been buying Claire drinks. Foggy has been buying Claire more than two drinks. Matt fumbles for his glass, and takes one long gulp from it. The burn gives him something to focus on, because he doesn’t really know what to do with this information. He’s not sure he wants to know more but he asks anyway.

“When did you figure this out?” Matt asks, keeping his voice as level as possible.

“Oh, about a month ago, why?” Claire replies. Just after she came back from vacation, then. Matt shrugs. 

“Yeah, but that was sad drinking! This is happy drinking!” Foggy says. Claire and Foggy were sad drinking together, and now they are happy drinking together. Matt can’t wrap his head around this. “Go on, tell him!”

“I got a raise, Matt. A big one.” Claire says happily. That wasn’t what he had been expecting, and he’s relieved. More relieved than he probably should be.

“And well deserved, I have no doubt.” Matt says, smiling in her direction again. This is still a surprising situation to walk into, but it’s hard not to be happy in the company of two people who sound very happy. And maybe smell happy? They don’t smell aroused, thank heavens. Matt’s not really sure what he would have done if he had walked in on Claire… and Foggy… on a date. He’s glad they seem to like each other - really glad - but that… is not something Matthew Murdock wants to contemplate right now. He takes another drink.

“Damn right it’s deserved!” said Foggy. “And thank God we know at least one financially solvent person. You know, in case of lean times.” Matt flushes.

“He’s just kidding, Claire.” Matt says, embarrassed. “We know plenty of people who are… solvent. And we haven’t been doing that bad landing new clients either. We scooped a few from Landman and Zack when they folded.” Foggy giggles and Claire sighs.

“I’m familiar with Foggy’s sense of humor, Matt. No need to apologize for him. And he complained extensively about how you made him call many of your old accounts.”

“Oh. Just how much have you guys been hanging out, anyway?” Matt tries to keep his voice level, and fails.

“Why, Matthew, are you jealous?” Claire asks, sounding just a little pleased.

“Oh, no, I just thought that one of you would have mentioned it…” Matt makes a little moue with his lips. Others - Foggy - have described this as his “kicked puppy” look, which is an unflattering description, but it usually buys a little sympathy. Not tonight, apparently.

“Serves you right, Murdock.” Foggy says, his scent changing slightly under the ethanol. He smells a little more bitter and a lot more salty, something Matt has come to associate with indignation. “Doesn’t feel good when people keep secrets, does it?’

“I’ve apologized, Foggy. But I will keep doing so if it makes you feel better. You’re right, and I’m sorry.” Now Matt actually is a little sad, dragging all this up when his friends were having a good time. He can’t help himself though, and asks. “But I thought we were good, Claire. How come you didn’t mention it last week?”

“Um, you may recall I was a little busy wrestling you out of that damn suit without hurting you more. Since you wouldn’t let me cut it. Did you manage to get the blood out of it?” Claire still sounds amused, anyway. She reaches over and gives his hand a little squeeze, though, which makes him feel better.

“He did.” Foggy confirmed. “I bought him some of that Oxyclean stuff. Has enzymes, or some such.”

“It works great, removes odors much better than so-called unscented detergent.” says Matt. “Thanks again Foggy, I never would have thought of it.” 

“One of the few benefits of not having a TV is that you miss out on all the infomercials, Murdock. I’m going to keep making you help me test the products, though. Got a new one coming in the mail this week.” Foggy sounds positively delighted about this, which is good, since Matt didn’t really want to upset him. But he can’t help but groan.

“It’s not another fitness gadget, is it? We don’t need another Iron Gym disaster. If you want to get more fit, I’ll take you to Fogwell’s.”

“Iron Gym disaster?” Claire asks, and Matt can’t help but laugh.

“So he brought the Iron Gym into our office, you see, and it’s supposed to hang on the door frame…”

“Oh no!” Foggy says. “No way. You are not telling this story. I haven’t told her about the Lemon Incident, and you are not telling her this story. I need you to make me look good, man. I’m still trying to convince her to hook me up with one of her pretty nurse friends. You owe me about a million favors, so tell her what a good guy I am. Or I’m going to show her the video of you and the shake weight.” Matt hears the thread in Foggy’s voice that means his joke isn’t a joke. He’s not that worried about the shake weight video, but he does want Foggy to find someone special.

“Foggy really is the best guy I know.” Matt says seriously, pausing to sip at the eel. “Although I understand if you don’t know anyone he would be compatible with.”

“It’s not that.” says Claire. “I told him I’d think about it if he stopped hooking up with his ex.”

“Which I have!” Foggy says, in his most innocent voice. “I haven’t seen her…”

“For like a week.” Matt says, unable to keep from teasing him.

“Damn your spooky super-smelling, Murdock. Next time I’m showering with the Oxyclean.” Matt listens to Foggy pour more eel for all of them, and to Claire laughing.

“Not recommended, Foggy.” Claire says, with air of someone who is repeating herself. “Go a month, and I’ll think about it…”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Ms. Temple. I could have used a sexy nurse after the Iron Gym incident....” Foggy is unable to help himself and he tells the story anyway, and between their banter and the eel and Claire’s laugh and the sound of his friends’ happy hearts, Matt’s apprehension finally drifts away.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like writing for Foggy and Claire so if you have any prompts for this gen pairing, leave them in the comments! If I fill them I'll dedicate them to you unless you indicate otherwise. Or bug me on tumblr, username katiekeysburg


End file.
